Here and Now

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City with no public schedule.

The state Legislature is due back in Albany today after its two-week spring break.

Former President Barack Obama returns to the national stage with the first big speech of his post-White House tenure, to be delivered in his hometown of Chicago. (He’ll be speaking to community leaders and organizers at the University of Chicago, which will be the site of his presidential library).

In D.C., the U.S. Senate is scheduled to confirm (belatedly) the president’s pick to be the next Agriculture secretary, Georgia former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue.

At 9 a.m., AARP launches a statewide series of free public document shredding events as part of “Operation: Stop Scams” to help New Yorkers fight identity theft and fraud, Sidney Albert Jewish Community Center, 340 Whitehall Road, Albany.

Also at 11 a.m., Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, Fireman’s Association of the State of New York President Ken Pienkowski and others announce seventh annual RecruitNY statewide firefighter recruitment initiative to boost firefighter numbers, Doyle Hose Company No. 1, 2199 William St., Cheektowaga.

Also at 11 a.m., environmental organizations respond to a new LIPA study, CCE Office, 225 Main St., Farmingdale, Long Island.

At noon, Queens Republican Councilman Eric Ulrich, who considered – but decided against – a run for NYC mayor, will endorse Bob Dietl’s run for that office, City Hall steps, Manhattan.

At 1 p.m., NYC Councilman Mathieu Eugene, the Haitian-American Council for Unity and Empowerment and others to urge the U.S. secretary of homeland security to renew Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, City Hall steps, Manhattan.

Also at 1 p.m., NYC Councilman Corey Johnson and AARP launch a statewide series of free document shredding events as part of “Operation: Stop Scams” to help New Yorkers fight identity theft and fraud, 26th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues, Manhattan.

At 2 p.m., Tax Equity Now New York (TENNY), a newly formed coalition of homeowners, civil justice organizations, and real estate leaders dedicated to fixing New York City’s broken property tax system will make a major announcement, City Hall steps, Manhattan.

At 3 p.m., the SUNY board of trustees holds a public meeting, The State University Plaza, 353 Broadway, Large Courtroom, Albany. (The selection of a replacement for outgoing Chancellor Nancy Zimpher will be announced).

At 4 p.m., Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer hosts a symposium on “How to keep manufacturing in NYC: the Garment Center and beyond,” High School of Fashion Industries, 225 W. 24th St., Manhattan.

Former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg said he decided not to run for president in 2016 because he did not believe he could win, especially on an independent ticket. “If I thought we could win, or had a reasonable chance, I would have done it,” he told “60 Minutes.”

Bloomberg’s net worth is $47 billion, and he says most of that will go to his philanthropic foundation. He has already given away $5 billion to causes that often dovetail with his political interests, like gun control and the environment.

A wide majority of voters who supported Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election say they would vote for her again despite her loss, according to a new poll.

Trump commented on the results of the Washington Post/ABC News poll, in which 53 percent of respondents characterized him as a strong leader. “Would still beat Hillary in…popular vote,” he tweeted.

Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been vandalized for the second time since October.

Trump will likely make his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., a bucolic town 40 miles west of Midtown Manhattan, his getaway spot for the summer.

Kristina Johnson, an engineer who developed technology critical to 3-D movies and served as under secretary in the U.S. Energy Department before founding a hydroelectric company, will be appointed chancellor of the SUNY, replacing outgoing Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, the first woman to hold the post.

Republican state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan will reportedly insist that more charter schools be allowed to open in New York City as part of any deal to extend Mayor Bill de Blasio’s authority over the public-school system.

State Senate Deputy Democratic Minority Leader Michael Gianaris, who heads his conference’s campaign operation, recently met with former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to talk about the need to flip New York to total Democratic control, and DNC Deputy Chair Keith Ellison will headline a fundraiser for the conference in June.

Central New York Rep. John Katko, a former longtime federal prosecutor, is reportedly considering a 2018 run for state attorney general on the GOP line. A spokeswoman for the congressman did not rule out the possibility that he’ll run statewide.

The Brooklyn DA’s office, promising to seek “equal and fair justice” for the borough’s vulnerable foreign-born residents, has created a policy that tailors prosecutions to avoid, when possible, the deportation or detention of immigrants charged with certain misdemeanors or nonviolent crimes.

Five people, three of them children, were killed in a fire that roared through a house in Queens yesterday afternoon, New York City officials said. The dead included two boys, 2 and 9; a girl, 14; a woman, 20; and a man, 45.

An off-duty NYPD officer was accused of drunk driving yesterday morning when he crashed on the Van Wyck Expressway, critically injuring two people, police said.

When the Justice Department accused New York City of being “soft on crime” last week, de Blasio called it an insult. But in political terms, for a mayor seeking re-election as a progressive defined by his defiance of Trump, the swipe from the federal government was more like a gift.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions backtracked on his comments regarding NYC law enforcement during an interview yesterday, and instead praised the NYPD as a model police department.

De Blasio denounced Trump’s upcoming 100-day point in office, describing the first three months as a “failure.”

Of the 3,371 graduates at the 31 high schools involved in de Blasio’s Renewal Schools program, as many as 242 earned their diplomas using an appeals process that allows for lower scores on exams or other side-door routes.

NYC public schools would have to serve halal and kosher meals to any student who requests them if a new bill introduced by Queens Assemblyman David Weprin becomes law.

A push to legalize the sale of alcohol in New York movie theaters might not be dead, though the issue fell out of the final budget deal.

Some child sex abuse survivors fear Gov. Andrew Cuomo is going back on his promise to prioritize passage this year of a bill meant to help victims seek justice as adults.

Long Island Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin faced fiery crowds in a series of public forums yesterday as he highlighted his differences with President Donald Trump while standing behind his support for repealing and replacing Obamacare.

Staten Island GOP Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis received some unexpected encouragement as she considers a potential mayoral bid. Assemblyman Jose Rivera, a Bronx Democrat, said she would mount a credible challenge to de Blasio and should run.

A stampede at Penn Station this month that injured 16 people has spurred Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to call for the creation of a joint command center at the busy transit hub aimed at improving communication among various agencies patrolling the station.

Schumer’s Penn Station press conference was interrupted by new chaos when a train got stuck on the tracks.

Businesses in the five boroughs would have to offer up recycling and compost bins alongside their trash cans under a new bill set to be introduced by NYC Councilman Ben Kallos.

Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant, who officially announced yesterday that she is running for mayor of Buffalo, bristles at the notion she could be a spoiler in what is now a three-way race in the Democratic primary.

A group of health care providers, drug reform advocates and former users is launching a new effort to bring supervised drug consumption centers to New York state.

The state will host its first of what it calls “The New York Harbor of Lights” show Thursday with the grand opening of the new Kosciuszko Bridge that links Queens and Brooklyn.

Amid widespread complaints that landlords are illegally refusing to rent to tenants using city vouchers to get out of homeless shelters, Bronx Councilman Ritchie Torres is looking to help tenants figure out where to turn.

Nassau Comptroller George Maragos is expected to announce today that the county ended 2016 with a multimillion-dollar budget surplus, although officials differ on the amount.

Victims of sexual misconduct at Troy’s Emma Willard School may offer an alternative report to fill in what they see as missing pieces of the school’s own recent probe into decades of abuse. “We’ve got our own report; it’s being formulated,” said Kat Sullivan, whose claim that she was raped in 1998 help precipitate the school’s self-examination.

A report released this month by Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite Connecticut boarding school, is filled with instances of men who had been accused of sexually abusing students, yet were allowed to keep teaching. Now accusations have emerged that two of the men may have abused students at other schools.

Dangerous levels of lead were found in paint chips that have been falling from the elevated tracks of the No. 7 line, according to tests conducted by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

The downsized Regents Fellows program represents a final chapter in what had been a series of high-profile reform attempts, which, facing ferocious union opposition and public mistrust, have faded from the scene.